hello. welcome to eyewitness news line. the operator of the fukushima daiichi nuclear plant released photographs that may fill in what happened there. they released 600 photos taken soon after the disaster. the company spokespersons say a lack of inhouse coordination

delayed the release of the images. members of a panel investigating the accident pointed to the presence of the images. managers say they asked employees and contractors to contribute the photos. some of the pictures show workers fleeing just after the earthquake. others show pools of water in rooms that housed the power sources for two of the reactors. tepco spokespersons say they don't believe the photos will directly affect their investigations into the accident. the people at tepco face the criticism over the past 18 months for the way they have handled the accident. now they have announced the establishment of an independent panel that will oversee their efforts to reform. the panel will propose safety improvements to tepco members including dale kline, a former chairman of the u.s. nuclear regulatory association.

the first meeting is scheduled for early next mow. spokespersons say they will use the recommendations to draw up an action plan by the end of the year. this will include reviewing safety measures and improving access to information. tepco president says a company qualified to operator a nuclear power plant has to take measures to prevent a possible accident. the turn around plan includes restarting a nuclear plant in central japan by next april at the earliest. residents of some communities are already voicing their opposition to that proposal. the accident prompted people in japan and abrd to scrutinize the nuclear industry and members of the cabinet finalized plans for a largely independent nuclear watch dog. the cabinet decided to inaugurate the watch dog on wednesday of next week. the commission will replace the nuclear and industrial safety

agency. that agency is controlled by the economy, trade, and industry ministry which has promoted atomic energy. people criticized it after the accident for lacking independence. >> translator: i expect the commission to make every effort to win public understanding so people will see that nuclear regulation has changed for the better. >> the commission will supervise a nuclear regulatory agency employing about 500 people, no doubt the five members of the commission. earlier we had a more in-depth review on this new commission. >> tell us what the new nuclear commission will do. >> let me give you three points. first, members will make emergency plans in the event of a nuclear accident and second they will also be in charge of drawing up new nuclear safety

measures for local municipalities. third, the commission will be tasked with deciding on restarting it in japan. right now 50 of 52 units are offline. they will separate the commission from the iustry ministry which was promoting nuclear power and will make the watch dog more independent than the body it is replacing, the nuclear and industry safety agency. >> the government originally planned to set up this new commission as early as april this year. it is now september. what is the reason for the delay? >> well, one of the reasons was discussion over the selection of a committee members. prime minister noda's plan to appoint the chairperson and the other four positions has been prolonged because o resistance not only by the opposition and also by members of his ruling

democratic. they said the experts in the list included people with strong connections with nuclear related businesses. noda gave up passing the personnel bill during the last session and decided to appoint the members by himself according to law. we won't find out until next week who will fill those positions. this delay in starting up the commission set the japanese government back by five months and it is still waiting to establish new nuclear safety guidelines a year-and-a-half after the accident at fukushima daiichi. in other news the mayor of osaka is expected to announce the formation of his new political party later today. he plans to extend his local party to one that is nationwide in order to participate in the

next lower house elections. his new national party is inspired by the great political reform of the 1868 majia restoration. seven members will leave other parties to join him. a former deputy chief cabinet secretary and two other lawmakers are leaving the governing democratic party. the other four members are from the opposition liberal democratic party and your party. >> i appreciate the decisions. they took a risk to help form a new party. >> hash mote awill hold a gathering on wednesday evening to announce the formation of the new party. japan's largest opposition liberal democratic party will choose a new leader later this month. five lawmakers will take part in the ldp leadership election. the former prime minister is expected to declare his

candidacy on wednesday. he says he wants to revooif japan by rediscovering the country's potential. he will announce a plan for the constitutional and educational reforms he tackled when he was prime minister. the former defense minister is also likely to announce his candidacy. the acting policy chief says he has secured the support of 20 lawmakers. this is the minimum figure he needs to run. former party policy chief isiba and machimura and former secretary ishihara will take part in the leadership election. campaigning will begin on friday and voting will take place on september 26th. president obama says the u.s. is now safer and stronger. he honored the victims of september 11th during a speech on the 11th anniversary of the attacks. obama took part in a memorial

service at the pentagon. hi jackers flew a plane into the u.s. military headquarters in 2001 and left 184 people dead. the president delivered his speech after observing a moment of silence. >> the true legacy of 9/11 will not be one of fear or hate or division, it will be a safer world, a stronger nation, and a people more united than ever before. >> obama emphasized the success of his antiterrorism measures. his administration is credited with killing osama bin laden and other senior al qaeda leaders. chinese leaders are ready to prime the pump of their powerhouse economy. yucatan seem ajoins us from the business desk. tell us what's happening in china. >> we have been seeing lackluster data coming out of the country and policy makers there are ready to pump more money into the economy.

they say the government will step up efforts to stabilize the slowing economy by using the large fiscal surplus. wynn was speaking at the u.s. economic forum in tianjin and says the country's economy has been affected by the prolonged credit crisis in europe which is dealt a severe blow to its export industries and added that china has a fiscal surplus of about $160 billion. >> china will tap a special stabilization fund if needed to support stable economic growth. >> last week the chinese government approved plans for 55 public works projects including subway systems and expressways. imf deputy managing director jumin supports the additional move and says the state of the economy affects the global economy including asia and south america. let's check on the markets now.

the dow jones industrial average ended about half a percent higher at 13,323, the highest level in almost five years. see how the stocks are trading wednesday and in japan we go to rumy at the stock exchange. how are tokyo stocks kicking off? >> indeed, a lot of anticipation and investigators are keen to see not only what the federal reserve will do when it wra up its two-day meeting on thursday and also in germany where a constitutional court will be giving its verdict on the legality of eurozone bailout funds, so a couple of big focuses there as well. let's see how the markets are opening up this wednesday and both indexes trading higher so a little follow through there from the u.s. markets that you just went over there. let's not forget the nikkei ended lower yesterday on a touch of profit taking and in fact did break below 8,800 at one point but did manage to close above it. we're seeing a little bit of a

positive momentum kicking through today. the ecp announced plans for unlimited bond buying and china over the weekend announced an aggressive five year growth plan and all the focus will be on the federal reserve in the u.s. and if it can add something new following two quantitative easing moves and its last move known as operation twist and all of which have not had the desired impact on the economy, so a lot of focus on that building we just saw. >> we have seen moves in currencies ahead of the main event this is week that you mentioned. where do we stand in wednesday in tokyo? >> currency of course a major play and having a look at some of the pairs there, specifically starting off with the dollar yen, 77.78 to 80 now over night the dollar hit the lowest level since june 1st at the upper 77 yen levels which is where we're

pretty much right now amid speculation the fed will take additional monetary easing measures at its policy meeting kicking off today and wrapping up on thursday. the euro incoming up on the screen, 99.96 to 01. that's interesting there. a lot of speculation on the euro. it did rise against the dollars, not so much against the yen and still hovering around close to that 100 level. it could get a bounce and this would be a huge boost for spain, italy, portugal, ireland and greece which would rely on the finds to help stabilize not only the bond markets but help with debt repayments. let's not forget later today apple will be coming up with the new line of products, a lot of focus on the iphone 5 and we'll be looking at apple related shares here and how they trade as well and all the effects from those related shares. back to you. >> thank you so much, ramin at

the tokyo sog. help wanted, a governor to run the bank of england. they announced they will run advertisements to look for the central bank chief for the first time ever. the finance minister said the successor to mervyn king will be chosen through fair and open competition. the application requirements are expected to include work experience at the central bangor managed experience at major private banks. local immediate ya say foreigners who make the requirements may also be eligible. the advertisements will be placed in business magazines and other media at the end of the week. the government plans to name the new governor by the end of this year. king's term will end next june. thats all for me. i ll lve youith the maet figures around the world.

farmers in northeastern japan are trying to get their fields back. the tsunami soaked the land with salt water. damages topped more than $10 billion. cleaning up the soil is one option. farmers are also working with scientists to find crops that can grow despite the pollution. >> reporter: he has grown rice

and vegetables on his farm for more than four decades. last year for the first time he had nothing to harvest. things aren't much better this year. leafy vegetables such as celery have a hard time growing. >> translator: it has been about three months since we planted the crop. it should have been ready by now. we can't sell is. it is not edible. >> reporter: the earthquake and tsunami damaged 22,000 heck ters of farm land across northeastern japan including 10% of the fields in myagi. sea water seeped into the soil and left behind a shroud of salt. plan plant absorbed water and farmers had trouble growing crops they could sell. government officials at different levels launched the

project to desalinate the oil. >> workers only cleaned up about half the farm land. the other half remains untouched. >> reporter: researchers are taking another tact. they're trying to develop a variety of rice that can thrive in this harsh environment. some are experimenting with genetically modified rice grown using diluted sea water. >> translator: we would like to mep rice farmers get back on their feet again by creating a variety of rice that is resistant to salt pollution. >> reporter: this machine emits an ion beam that triggers plants to mutate. experiments suggest that the process can turn grains of rice

to ones immune to salt pollution. researchers have found only about one in every 100ish radiated grains will grow into a plan that survives. then they will be able to use all the grains from that plant. >> translator: if it goes as planned we can develop rice that is salt resistant. >> reporter: farmers have other plans, too. they are taking part in a project to grow licorice. drug makers use the roots in various medications including one that treats stoch ulcers. people in japan use about 3,000 tons of licorice last year. they imported almost all of it from china and elsewhere. they have been researching licorice for 20 years.

>> translator: i saw plants in the pea family grow in salt-damaged fields, so i thought licorice could easily grow, too. >> reporter: he provided takahashi seed lightnings to plant. >> translator: i am surprised they have grown bigger than expected. this licorice is growing well. i cannot return to the way things were so the only thing i can do is to work step by step like going upstairs gradually. >> reporter: he can't wait for the first harvest. he expects it will come in november. takahashi isn't just cultivating rice and vegetables on his farm. he is cultivating hope. the tsunami dumped millions of tons of debris on the ocean floor polluting fishing grounds.

now some people are banding together to clean things up. >> reporter: they have plunged into the ocean near the fishing port and divers from all over japan are collecting debris swept into the waters by the tsunami. pieces of fishing boats, a brief case, a kitchen sink. he robbery i is a diving instructor and spent his summers on the coast and learned to live here. last year several of his relatives died here. he has been supervising teams of volunteers since right after the disaster. >> translator: there are still

many places we haven't started cleaning up yet. they looked just the same as they did a year-and-a-half ago. >> reporter: the tsunami destroyed ports all along the coast. he asked himself what he could do to help. a month after the disaster he and his friends got to work. cleaning up under water requires advanced diving skills and physical strength. divers tie ropes around pieces of debris and then hold them onto boats. many lack something that is indispensable to their work, knowledge of the sea around them. for that they turn to local fishermen.

tomi lost two boats and all of his equipment in the tsunami. he hasn't been able to fish since. he agreed to pitch in. >> translator: thanks to suto and his team the coast is finally clean and fishermen hope it is under water so we're very grateful. >> reporter: the divers and fishermen started this project more than a year ago and now they're starting to see the results of their work. on this day he asked sato to inspect part of the seabed that had already been cleaned up. sato found a baby sea squirt, a common local species and it hatched after the tsunami. >> translator: this makes me happy. >> reporter: sato also found a jungle of a rare type of grass,

and schools of baby horse with yellow tail in hot psuit and life under water seemed to have bounced back. >> translator: the ocean off the san rica coast is truly rich and magnificent. i am really proud of that and i want to could whatever i can to contribute to make it more beautiful. >> reporter: no one knows how long the cleanup will take but the divers and fishermen say they're committed to the job and say the fate of the fisheries is at stake and with it the fate of the communities that depend on them. all right. there is a storm just off the

east coast of the philippines. we have the details on that and more in the world weather forecast. >> right now tropical storm is situated to the east of the philippines and going to move over towards the north parallel to the east coast of the philippines for the next few days so it is not going to make a direct impact on the country but it could in the southwest monsoon so you will see intensifying showers and rough seas and moderate to strong winds for the next few days. looks like it will move towards the north over the next few days and become a strong typhoon by saturday morning and affect the okinawa islands or taiwan sometime between saturday night into sunday. stormy conditions are possible over the weekend here and moving over the china sea. we'll keep you posted on the storm's progress. as for the rest of east asia, a tropical depression to the

east-southeast of japan will stay over the waters but heavy rain continuing in northern japan and has had about 300 millimeters of rain over the past four days or so and the ground is saturated. unfortunately an additional 100 millimeters of thunderstorms and gusty winds will likely continue at least into tonight. out towards the west heavy rain will be shifting towards the southeast. temperatures are looking like this, cooling down to 24 degrees and still on the hot side in shanghai and 30 degrees and 34 degrees expected in taipei. moving into the americas, then, we have been talking about tropical storm leslie. leslie made landfall newfoundland this morning and left the islands and the conditions are improving here but leslie will likely impact iceland with heavy rain and rough sea conditions late

wednesday. as for north america, then, high pressure system is keeping things dry and settled across the east and we have a cold front here and it is not going to produce heavy rain, instead very windy conditions, so red flag warnings are posted in the northern rockies and the northern half of the plains today. out west monsoonal showers intensifying in the four corners region as well as southern nevada and northwestern mexico, so flash flood warnings are posted here and into the north wet and windy weather in central canada moving towards ontario. temperatures are as follows. denver a sharp drop in temperatures on wednesday, 20 degrees, that's about 15 degrees lower than tuesday and still on the hot side, though, in chicago 31 and 34 degrees in oklahoma city. finally let's go to europe. stormy, wet and windy conditions across the northwest and then we have a cold front stretching from poland through germany down

towards france and underneath the system, very heavy in, strong winds, and risk of hail and with the arrival of heavy rain temperatures will drop dramatically, cooling down to 17 in berlin, about 10 degrees lower than tuesday and still on the moderate side in vienna, 23 but will cool down by about 7 degrees as we held into thursday. that's it for me now. here is your extended forecast.

that's all for this edition of "newsline." thanks very much for joining us.